The Federal Communications Commission has started backpedaling after a loud and public outcry from rights groups and netizens about their proposal to tax broadband Internet services. Democrat and Republican commissioners at the agency are now pointing fingers at each other for bringing up the hot-button issue in the first place.

Neil Grace, a spokesman for Chairman Julius Genachowski, is claiming this morning that the FCC only floated the proposal "following the urging of Republican Commissioners and members of Congress."

"The Chairman remains unconvinced that including broadband is the right approach," he told The Hill.

The only Republican on the commission, Robert McDowell, delivered a full-throated rejection of the idea when it was mentioned earlier in the year and said he would never support such a move.

"I have never suggested taxing broadband Internet access," he told The Hill.

McDowell added the he has a lot of doubts about whether the FCC even has the authority to enforce taxation on Internet services.